Facilities included in this important four-year UHS initiative are located in California, Texas, Nevada, Florida, Oklahoma, and the District of Columbia. Levels of retro-commissioning scope have varied with the size, condition, and needs of the facilities, as well as client goals. About 4.8 million square feet of facilities have been involved in total, requiring active efforts by 17 GBA staff members.
- Ongoing commissioning has included leveraging and integrating third-party fault detection and diagnostics (FDD) and energy information system (EIS) software platforms, to help identify additional energy savings measures and verify performance of implemented measures.
- Typical measures have included air-handling unit (AHU) temperature and pressure resets, economizer modifications, AHU scheduling and setbacks, and staging optimization of boilers, pumps, chillers, and cooling towers. In some instances, new sensors and valves were installed as well as VFDs and plate-and-frame free-cooling heat exchangers.
- GBA has also provided design and construction management services through a subsidiary, overseeing installation of selected measures developed through the RCx and FDD/EIS projects.
- GBA has worked with UHS and its individual facility teams to apply for financial incentives through various local utilities; thus far, about $110,000 has been received, with about $253,000 in incentives pending.
- By the end of the second program year, verified savings of 3.6 million kWh/year and 150,000 therms/year had been achieved, resulting in $556,000 of annual savings. Projected cost savings for the entire four-year cycle are nearly $2.2 million.
- The program has been recognized by the Smart Energy Analytics Campaign in the category of New Installation of an FDD System, Healthcare.
- The project conducted at Spring Valley Hospital Medical Center, Las Vegas, was the recipient of ASHRAE awards from the Illinois Chapter and from Region VI.
